[BlowFish]

Originally Posted by stephenfrankel »

Hi Blowfish,
I trade spot Forex using vsa which uses E signal data through the original vsa software called "Tradeguider" which was invented by Tom Williams the creator of Vsa and No one else but copied by many. The volume in Tradeguider I believe is based on tick volume which with my trading I find is very accurate as I use the volume spikes as turning points in the market to get in or out of the trade. You could learn more about Vsa from Tom Williams e book available on the Tradeguider site for about $10 I believe but I don't know of any other software that gives accurate volume. I tried MT4 and it didn't help me. Tradeguider run some free webinairs which show vsa use and volume. I am happy to send anyone that wants one of my forex charts to show you how you can see the volume bars and the spikes to prove this as I wouldn't consider trading without this!
Stephen F.

Hi, Thanks for the suggestion but I have had the original paper copy of Tom's book since it was first published. In those days he was happy to take telephone calls to discuss the concepts too which was a bonus! As for Tradeguider it is my view that you do not need expensive software to convert less than a dozen simple principle's into 450+ indicators!! As for 'professional salesman and marketing expert' GH personally I can't sit through all the hyperbole and misinformation on the off chance of a pearl being buried in all the ...... It is worth trying to track down Sebastians videos (there used to be a couple here).

Again just to reiterate tick volume on forex is constructed from quote changes not trades. If that works for you great stuff!

[Intel55]

Hi Ingot54,

I would like to commend you on your decision to learn VSA. You have raised many questions here(VSA tends to do that to you) and you should seek out the answers or doubt will forever plague your trading.

I'm going to say something that will sound a little pompus but, I mean the best when I say it. I could answer just about all of your questions above but I'm not going to. If I just tell you the answers, you will miss the most important aspect to the answers. All the information your require is out there somewhere but to find i, you must read and learn so much. Without this learning curve, you WILL NOT succeed in VSA.

Learning the VSA language takes a long time and a lot of dedication on your part. You can write off the next 12 months for sure, probably longer. But I can assure you of this, when you can 'read' the charts, you will NEVER look at the charts in the same light again.

There is so much info available for free on the net, forums, pdfs, videos, documents, books etc and you need to read/see it all.

I can offer this as a kind of incentive for you. 18 months ago I knew nothing of VSA. Now I trade VSA successfully in ONLY the forex market. Also, I do it using MT4(demo) and it's inbuilt volume feed(fxcm tho I'm just looking into changing to The collective FX due to repainting issues with fxcm during news events). I use the demo feeds mor the charting and separate platform for live trading. I do not trade full time but, this is due to personal circumstances not trading.

For all those people out there who say volume/ VSA doesn't work in the forex market.......they are simply wrong. In my experience, the people who say this, do not know how to read VSA.......even tho many think they do (I mean no disrespect to anyone).

[Paul Honkers]

try dukascopy for real FX volume...either their platform, or MT4, via the bridge. ATC is also handy due to their ECN spreads are quite tight thus ticks up and down have more relevance than a fixed spread nickle & dime platform. The Volume indi on MT4 is completely suitable. I used to work for a bank, and I wouldn't say we were always the "smart money" but we did have size. If I needed to buy or dump 100.0 Mio US$ parcel, it would always be done in small sizes so as not to disturb the market. So while you do not have actual volume per se, you do have ticks. They are as good a guide to volume as anything else apart from the real thing.

[Paul Honkers]

Originally Posted by Intel55 »

Hi Ingot54,
you must read and learn so much. Without this learning curve, you WILL NOT succeed in VSA.
For all those people out there who say volume/ VSA doesn't work in the forex market.......they are simply wrong. In my experience, the people who say this, do not know how to read VSA.......even tho many think they do (I mean no disrespect to anyone).

100% agree..... get a demo account, try everything and burn through it to zero, then get another demo account and burn through it to zero, then get another demo account and you will be surprised to see you can't burn through it, it actually grows consistently....then put your cash into an account. Set the demo accounts to a real number that you want to invest so that the numbers have value & meaning to you when you win or lose. It may take a week, a month, a year, depending on your time and circumstances, but it will be time well spent. Don't use real money until your have 3 months consecutive profit on a demo account if just trading daily or weekly. If trading a smaller time frame, hourlys, then 4-6 weeks of profitable trading should be enough.

[Ingot54]

Originally Posted by Intel55 »

Hi Ingot54,

I would like to commend you on your decision to learn VSA. You have raised many questions here(VSA tends to do that to you) and you should seek out the answers or doubt will forever plague your trading.

I'm going to say something that will sound a little pompus but, I mean the best when I say it. I could answer just about all of your questions above but I'm not going to. If I just tell you the answers, you will miss the most important aspect to the answers. All the information your require is out there somewhere but to find i, you must read and learn so much. Without this learning curve, you WILL NOT succeed in VSA.

Learning the VSA language takes a long time and a lot of dedication on your part. You can write off the next 12 months for sure, probably longer. But I can assure you of this, when you can 'read' the charts, you will NEVER look at the charts in the same light again.

There is so much info available for free on the net, forums, pdfs, videos, documents, books etc and you need to read/see it all.

I can offer this as a kind of incentive for you. 18 months ago I knew nothing of VSA. Now I trade VSA successfully in ONLY the forex market. Also, I do it using MT4(demo) and it's inbuilt volume feed(fxcm tho I'm just looking into changing to The collective FX due to repainting issues with fxcm during news events). I use the demo feeds mor the charting and separate platform for live trading. I do not trade full time but, this is due to personal circumstances not trading.

For all those people out there who say volume/ VSA doesn't work in the forex market.......they are simply wrong. In my experience, the people who say this, do not know how to read VSA.......even tho many think they do (I mean no disrespect to anyone).

Just catching up with this again ... pushed to the back burner, but it doesn't deserve to be lost.

I agree with your assessment of the way to learn this, Intel.

When something is handed to you on a platter, it is so easy to treat it lightly, or even dismiss it. But when the SAME info is earned through your own sweat and tears, suddenly the info has value and meaning.

That is what I want VSA to mean to me - something valuable and usable.

For the moment, I will be moving slowly with this, as I am wanting to continue to develop my trading the way I am. But I imagine at some point I will be compelled to make the switch. Thank you for the encouragement.

[Ingot54]

Originally Posted by Paul Honkers »

100% agree..... get a demo account, try everything and burn through it to zero, then get another demo account and burn through it to zero, then get another demo account and you will be surprised to see you can't burn through it, it actually grows consistently....then put your cash into an account. Set the demo accounts to a real number that you want to invest so that the numbers have value & meaning to you when you win or lose. It may take a week, a month, a year, depending on your time and circumstances, but it will be time well spent. Don't use real money until your have 3 months consecutive profit on a demo account if just trading daily or weekly. If trading a smaller time frame, hourly's, then 4-6 weeks of profitable trading should be enough.

Thank you for that Paul.

I will get to this point eventually.

The way you put it sounds so easy ... Just 2 burned demo accounts and you are there!!

I am just kidding - I realise you were illustrating a way to quickly learn how to use VSA - and I am grateful. Next thing is a starting point. Currently I have the 2 .PDF docs that are stickies at the top of the menu ... and they are quite readable for me.

Other starting reading is also welcome.

Cheers.

[MightyMouse]

Retail forex does not have the volume that VSA needs.

The best way to get volume read on forex is to use market profile. The original use of MP was to estimate volume on futures when the exchanges charged or withheld volume information. It still works, but volume is now readily available.

If you became proficient in estimating volume on forex using MP, you'd probably have a leg up on other retail forex traders.

[laurus12]

Originally Posted by Intel55 »

Hi Ingot54,

I would like to commend you on your decision to learn VSA. You have raised many questions here(VSA tends to do that to you) and you should seek out the answers or doubt will forever plague your trading.

I'm going to say something that will sound a little pompus but, I mean the best when I say it. I could answer just about all of your questions above but I'm not going to. ...........

For all those people out there who say volume/ VSA doesn't work in the forex market.......they are simply wrong. In my experience, the people who say this, do not know how to read VSA.......even tho many think they do (I mean no disrespect to anyone).

I fully agree with you Intel55. Though to me the time told to me for evolving in VSA did not seem appealing when starting out, I know today that one have to do some serious work to develop the "VSA-muscle" in the brain. It is another way of perceiving things and it takes time to get the brain to make those connections and ability to perceive the pictures given to you in the markets.

And yes, VSA absolutely works with FOREX. I use it too, but I would recommend to get a eSignal GTIS subscription to get the best and most trustworthy picture for us retailers. The latter my opinion off course.

Laurus